


Sweeter Every Heartbeat

by Vashti (tvashti)



Series: Mirror [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Family, Family Feels, Family Secrets, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Growing Up, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Original Character-centric, Pre-Iron Man 1, Tony is alluded to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 11:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14692938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvashti/pseuds/Vashti
Summary: Five-year-old Dianelys Antonia Torres doesn't know why her Mama gave her such a stupidly long name, but she does know that family is not for sharing.





	1. Sweeter

**Author's Note:**

> You can read this on its own, but it probably helps to read the first story in the series first. 
> 
> I apologize now for my questionable Spanish translations. There aren't many, but I still probably should have had my Spanish-speaking friends give it a once-over.

**5 - Sweeter**

Dinah is aware of how hard it is to spell her super long name—Dianelys Antonia Torres, _ai!_ —long before she’s aware of...everything really: aware that living with her grandparents, her young twin aunt and uncle, and her Mama is not "nuclear"; aware that her father not being on the list of residents is not normal; aware of having never seen him, at least as far she knows, is probably A Bad Sign; aware that her dark skin and tightly curled hair are a problem for many people, and that they’re going to make it her problem, too.

Five year old Dinah knows none of that. She knows that when she draws a picture of her _Mama, Nana, Abuelito, Tia_ Yvee and _Tio_ Jorge the teacher always tells her how good it is, how the colors all look nice together, and she, Ms. Hernandez, can tell who’s who just by looking. Dinah knows what a big compliment that last one is. No matter how many times she looks down at Stephanie’s pictures of her family, Dinah has no idea which brownish-tannish blob is which. Except her dad, because he has short hair. (Dinah feels bad that Stephanie only has three people in her pictures, including herself, but she never offers one of her family members to help fill out the pages. Family, she knows, is not for sharing.)

As far as Dinah knows, as far as she’s aware, everything at _home_ is just fine. So long as Yvee and Jorge aren’t fighting.

Now if only her mama hadn’t given her such a stupidly long name!

* * *

Pronunciations & Translations  
Dianelys - DIE-an-a-lees  
Jorge - Hor-hay  
Abuelito - Grandpa  
Tia - Auntie  
Tio - Uncle


	2. Every Heartbeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinah is beginning to discover questions she didn't know she should be afraid to ask.

**6-8 - Every Heartbeat**

The first time someone at school talks about skipping her, Dinah’s in first grade. She’s only started reading this year but she’s mastered phonics in only a few months and, by the time Christmas rolls around, has blown through all the Dick & Jane books (which is a relief, because Mama brings home much more interesting books that she’s been waiting to read, thank you very much). But her Mama, a twice skipped college drop-out is resistant. Dinah’s glad. She doesn’t want to leave her friends.

Grade skipping comes up again, however, when she changes schools in the third grade and it is Just Not A Good Fit. Finding a new school will take time and resources, though. Not too many of Mama’s friends have kids, so they’re not very helpful. Not too many people where they live think too much about schooling, except that their kids have to go, so they aren’t very helpful either. So it’s Mama who pushes for Dinah to skip most of third grade for fourth. 

This time it’s the school that’s resistant. It’s Just Not How Things Are Done.

By November Dinah’s the new kid again when she had been hoping not to ever be the new kid ever again. Luckily she knows nothing about her mother’s machinations or the school’s resistance or she might have divided her loyalties in all the wrong directions, making fourth grade that much harder to bear.

Shy at first in her new “exalted” position, and hurt by her friends’ turning their backs, her new classmates think of Dinah like a toy or an adorable pet that speaks really well. Then she gets over it.

By Christmas she’s in her first fight.

“Just wait until your daddy comes to get you! You’re gonna be in so much trouble!” Daniella shrieks from the ground as their teacher hauls Dinah off her. She’s small, yes, especially since she’s a whole year younger than the other girl, but she’s active and compact and used to roughhousing with boys.

“I don’t have a daddy!” Dinah spits back.

She means it as a badge. Wait until Mr. Authority Figure comes to put me down to size? Well ha-ha, jokes on you, I don’t fall under Mr. Authority Figure’s jurisdiction, so there. (And, yes, I use words like ‘jurisdiction’!) 

Or like, Wait until the teacher comes? Ha-ha, I don’t even go to this school. She means it like that.

But when instead of being impressed that she is an 8-year-old law unto herself the room is stunned into silence, Dinah knows, for the first time, that something is wrong. She doesn’t have time to turn it over, though. Their teacher is hauling her out of the room—just because Dinah knows something is wrong doesn’t mean she’s not going to take advantage of everyone’s guard being down; she’s a smart girl. Then she’s sitting in the office waiting for her Mama to pick her up (now that would have been a worthy threat) and trying not to pee her pants. Dinah’s done a bad thing and she knows it. Oh, how she knows it. The twins fight all the time and nothing good ever comes out of it for anyone.

It’s not until much later, with her trying to find a comfortable way to sit on her tanned hide as she does her homework, that she has time and attention for the earlier incident. What about her exchange with Daniella made everyone her class react like that? Even Lucy’s eyes had widened, and Lucy was her new best friend.

_“Just wait until your daddy comes to get you!”_

_“I don’t have a daddy!”_

Had she said something wrong? She _didn’t_ have a daddy. She had Abuelito, and she loved him very much. He’d given her a candy after the hide-tanning when her Mama wasn’t looking. He let her play with his hair when her dolls had run out of room for holding all her bobos.

Was having a daddy different? Was there something wrong with not having one?

* * *

“So you’ve never been married? Not even to my daddy?”

Mama shook her head. “Nope. Never.”

“Is he married?”

Mama nearly choked, but instead she coughed. “Um, no, not as far as I know.”

“Was he ever married?”

“Again, not as far as I know.”

“Am I secret…does he know about me?”

Mama’s cheek twitched and she sorta almost smiled. “No, _mija_ , you’re not a secret. And yes, he knows about you.”

“Have I ever seen him?”

Mama sighed, but not like she was annoyed, more like…something else, but not annoyed. “When you were very little. Too little to remember.”

“But he saw me, right?”

_“Si, porsupuesto querida.”_

The next question goes unasked because Dinah is suddenly scared of the answer. Instead she reaches up and hugs her mama around the middle. “Thanks you!”

“Thank you,” she’s corrected. Dinah repeats the phrase. “Is that all you want, baby?” her Mama asks.

Squashing the scary, fluttery feeling in her middle, Dinah smiles brightly and nods. _“Si, mama!”_

_“Te quiero, mi preciosa.”_

Fin[ite]

* * *

Translations  
si - yes  
mija - contraction of _mi hija_ , or "my daughter"  
“Si, porsupuesto querida.” - Yes, of course my dear.  
“Te quiero, mi preciosa.” - I love you, my precious


End file.
